Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN J /v v/. j // / ,: j , v/ //-/&S/0///' ' ^ ///// ///////// /^L ^'/V /3-CL ATHENAEUM CANCELLED. LIGRARY, J A KEY TO THE GOSPEL NARRATIVE RIVINGTONS ILonBon Waterloo Place ©rfbrt) High Street Trinity Street A KEY tfje fiatratt&e of THE FOUR GOSPELS BY JOHN PILKINGTON NORRIS, M.A. 'ANON OF BRISTOL, AND FORMERLY ONE OF H. M. INSPECTORS OF SCHOOLS RIVINGTONS IConion, O.vforb, anb Cambrtbgc 1869 THIS is an age of historical criticism. Some think we are carrying it too far. It is difficult to see how it can possibly be carried too far, so long as it is sincere and thoroughgoing. But, rightly or wrongly, so it is. Everything pur- porting to be a fact in the world's history is being thus tested, that we may see for ourselves whether it have about it the character of an authentic fact or no. The Gospel narratives cannot escape this kind of criticism. The purpose of the following pages is to help our younger students to realize to themselves the narrative of these four Gospels : to show that they are not contradictory but supplemental to each other. It may not be possible to weave into one con- sistent chronicle all their anecdotes of our blessed Lord's ministry. But it may be possible so far to succeed in reconstructing the original order of events, as to satisfy any candid mind that their 2000293 discrepancies are only such as might naturally be expected in four independent portraitures ; and to quicken the reader's consciousness of the reality of the Divine original. This last is the all-important thing. We may or we may not be able to answer all the cavils of one who is unwilling to receive the truth. But to strengthen our own convictions, to learn to read these records of Christ with a vivid perception of their intense truthfulness, to freshen and deepen those impressions which long familiarity may have weakened, this is of infinite concern, if to know Him be indeed to us eternal life. Contents PART I s CHAP. PAGE I. EXTERNAL TESTIMONIES TO THEIR AUTHEN- TICITY ....... I II. THEIR INTERNAL CHARACTER IO PART IT The ©osptl ^arratibr I. BIRTH AND YOUTH OF OUR LORD . . . 18 II. BAPTISM, TEMPTATION, AND FIRST YEAR'S MINISTRY 23 III. SECOND YEAR, FIRST QUARTER — THE GREAT GALILEAN MINISTRY 30 IV. SECOND YEAR, SECOND QUARTER — PASSOVER AND NORTHERN TOUR .... 38 V. SECOND YEAR, THIRD QUARTER — TRANSFIGU- RATION AND FEAST OF TABERNACLES . . 46 VI. SECOND YEAR, FOURTH QUARTER — FINAL RE- TURN TO JUDEA, AND FEAST OF DEDICATION 52 viii Cxmtmte CHAP. PAGE VII. THIRD YEAR, FIRST QUARTER — RAISING OF LAZARUS, AND FINAL ASCENT TO JERU- SALEM . . . . . . . 57 VIII. EARLY DAYS OF HOLY WEEK ... 63 IX. THE LAST SUPPER AND THE BETRAYAL . . 72 X. JUDGMENT IN THE JEWISH COURT . . 78 XI. JUDGMENT IN THE ROMAN COURT ... 83 XII. THE CRUCIFIXION 89 XIII. THE BURIAL AND RESURRECTION 95 XIV. THE FORTY DAYS . . IOI PART III on tht <&o&yt\. Jlarratite I. ON THE NARRATIVE OF THE BIRTH AND INFANCY IO8 II. ON THE SILENCE OF THE GOSPELS RESPECT- ING OUR LORD'S LIFE AT NAZARETH . . 112 III. ON THE NARRATIVE OF THE TEMPTATION . 115 IV. ON OUR LORD'S MIRACLES . . . .119 v. CHRIST'S DEATH A MYSTERY . . .127 VI. ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE GOSPEL NARRA- TIVE 132 PART I jFour ©ospels CHAPTER I (External '(Etstiinonics to thrir JUtfmxtidig NO fact in the world's history is more certain than that 1800 years ago, in the broad daylight of the Roman Empire, there came into existence, and rapidly increased in numbers, a society of men calling themselves Christians. The Roman historian of the period1, writing with a strong heathen prejudice, mentions them by name, and adds that ' their founder was one C/irzstus, who suffered capital punishment under the procurator Pontius Pilate, in the reign of Tiberius ; but that this mischievous superstition, repressed for a while, burst forth again, not only throughout Judea, where it first arose, but even in Rome.' And then he goes on to describe how Nero charged them with having set fire to Rome, and tried to crush them by persecution. This was A.D. 64. Forty years later, the accomplished Pliny found such multitudes professing Christianity in Asia Minor, that the temples of the heathen gods were deserted ; and we have a letter from him to the Emperor Tra- jan, asking how he was to deal with them, and de- A- L, * Tacitus, Ann. xv. 44. A scribing their habits, — how ' they assembled on certain stated days before it was light, and repeated in alter- nate verses one with another a hymn or form of prayer to Christ, as to some God, binding themselves by a sacrament1, — not for any criminal purpose — but to abstain from fraud, theft, and adultery, from falsifying their word, from retaining what did not belong to them2; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to eat in common a harmless meal.' This, he said, had been going on for twenty years or more. In vain the Roman magistrates tried to trample out this ' new superstition.' The more they crushed it, the more it grew ; and two centuries later it became the state-religion of the Empire. All this is mere matter of notoriety, not resting on the authority of the Christians or their writings, nor belonging to any dark ages of the world's history, but recorded in the contemporary annals of the Roman Empire in the days of its greatest splendour. Deeply interesting it must be, from even a merely historical point of view, to inquire what account these Christians gave of themselves and of their origin. An anecdote has been preserved which may serve to illustrate the unobtrusiveness and modesty of the early Christians when called upon to give an account of themselves : — About fifteen years before the date of Pliny's letter, the Emperor Domitian was alarmed by the revival of a report which had been very prevalent at the begin- ning of his father's reign, that a great prince was 1 Pliny would doubtless understand by this an oath merely. 2 May we not recognise here the latter commandments of the Decalogue ? (External Ttstimxrtms to tluir JtuthentUitB 3 expected to appear in Judea, and that he was to come from the house of David. He ordered inquiry to be made in Palestine for any descendants of David, and two sons (or grandsons) of Jude ('the Lord's brother') were brought before him. 'He demanded whether they were descended from David. They confessed it. Again he inquired what were their means. They de- clared that they possessed but 9000 denarii (about .£300), and a few acres of land in Judea. They showed him their hands, hard with daily toil, in token of the simple industry by which they gained their living. Once more the Emperor asked what was the meaning of Christ's kingdom, to which they replied that /'/ was not of this world, but should appear at the consummation of all things. Domitian, it is said, was satisfied with these answers ; and, it is added, put a stop from that moment to the persecution of the Christians.'— (Merivale's History of Rome, chap. Ixii.) This harmlessness and entire absence of worldly ambition appear in the public ' Apologies,' which from time to time the Christians addressed to the Imperial Government. But in these same Apologies there ap- pears also— what the Romans could not comprehend or forgive — their deep enthusiastic reverence for Christ their Founder ; their intense conviction that He was living in the unseen world, and daily pouring His Holy Spirit into their hearts ; their ardent ex- pectation of His near return to judge the world. But what had their Founder done, or what had He left behind Him on the earth to explain all this ? He left no writings1. He had simply left behind 1 Augustine thinks it necessary to explain the reasons of this at great length in his book De Consensit Evangdistarum. Him a group of men on whom He had made so deep an impression that their whole character was changed, and they were fired with a holy zeal to work in others that same change of which they were so conscious in themselves. Christianity was to them not a doctrine merely, not a record, but a life1, a new vital principle throbbing in every pulse of their being, which they felt bound to impart to others also, to as many as they could reach, before the second coming of their Lord. The pre- cious memory of all that Christ had said and done and suffered, while on earth, lived from mouth to mouth, was the staple of their preaching, was the first lesson of their catechumens. ' The time was so short '2 that it seemed hardly necessary to stamp with official autho- rity any of the written records of these facts. But in the next generation, when Christ's return was still delayed, and seemed likely to be delayed, and when the growth of erroneous notions made an appeal to some written rule of faith a necessity, the Christians began carefully to treasure and transcribe such memoirs of Christ as the Apostles or their com- panions had committed to writing for the use of any of their converts. Thus it happened that whereas the earlier Christians appealed to the facts of Christ's ministry as known by oral tradition, saying, ' It has been delivered to us by those who were eye-witnesses,' or the like, — a later generation, beginning with Justin Martyr, began to appeal to written documents. In Justin Martyr we find such an appeal repeatedly. He wrote his Dialogue and his Apology between the years 140 and 150 A.D. He was of Greek descent, 1 Acts v. 20. 2 I Cor. vii. 29. (External Ctstitmmics to iluir JtuihentiatB 5 born near the ancient Shechem. After trying all the schools of Philosophy, and finding them unsatisfac- tory, he was led by a meek and venerable old man, whom he met one day on the sea-shore, to embrace Christianity. ' Many things,' he says, ' this old man told me which I cannot now record. I saw him no more. But forthwith a fire was kindled in my soul, and I was filled with a love of those prophets and friends of Christ of whom he had spoken. And when I pondered all his words, I began to see that this was the only philosophy which was safe, and suited to my need.' Twelve times Justin refers to the written Memoirs of the Apostles, as he calls them ; and that by these ' Memoirs ' he meant our four Gospels, is rendered highly probable by the fact that wherever he quotes them — and he makes seven such quotations — the words are to be found in one or other of our Gospels. In his famous account of the Christian Eucharist1, he says, ' The Apostles, in Memoirs which they wrote, and which are called Gospels, have recorded these injunctions of the Lord.' And in the same passage he tells us how the Christians of the country villages assembled together every Sunday to hear the Memoirs of the Apostles, or the books of the Prophets, read aloud. And again in his Dialogue2 he writes : — ' In the Memoirs, which I say were composed by the Apostles and their companions, we read that sweat as drops streamed down from Him, as He was praying and saying, Let this cup pass from me.' That by ' the followers of the Apostles ' he here alluded spe- cially to St. Luke, is very clear, not only because the passage quoted occurs in St. Luke, but also because 1 Apol. i. 66, 67. 2 Ch. 103. the Greek word used for ' follower ' is the very word by which St. Luke describes himself in the preface to his Gospel. Papias, a contemporary of Justin, mentions the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark by name. He was the friend of Polycarp, and, like him, is said to have been a disciple of St. John. In his work, An Ex- position of the Oracles of the Lord, of which fragments have been preserved to us in Eusebius1, he says, ' Matthew composed his oracles in Hebrew, and each one interpreted them as he was able.' Of St. Mark he says, ' Mark having become Peter's interpreter, wrote accurately all that he remembered ; though he did not record in order that which was said or done by Christ. For he neither heard the Lord, nor fol- lowed Him ; but subsequently, as I said, attached him- self to Peter, who used to frame his teaching to meet the immediate wants of his hearers ; and not making a connected narrative of the Lord's discourses.' He seems too in another fragment to quote St. John. Either Papias or some contemporary — certainly not later than A.D. 170 — wrote a complete Canon of the Books of the New Testament as then received in the Christian Church. A precious fragment of this Canon was discovered in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, and was published in 1740, by Muratori. It is sadly mutilated, but enough remains to give it the highest value. Mr. Westcott (in his History of the New Testament Canon) thus gives its substance : — ' The fragment commences with the last words of a sentence which evidently referred to the Gospel of St. Mark. The Gospel of St. Luke, it is then said, stands 1 Ecc. Hist. iii. 39. (External testimonies to their ^uthenticitg 7 third in order, having been written by Luke the Physi- cian, St. Paul's companion, who not being himself an eye-witness, based his narrative on such information as he could obtain, beginning from the birth of the Baptist. The fourth place is given to the Gospel of St. John, a disciple of our Lord ; and the occasion of its writing is thus described : In reply to the entreaties of his fellow-disciples and bishops John said, " Fast with me for three days from this time, and whatever shall be revealed to each of us, whether it be favourable to my writing or not, let us relate it one to another." On the same night it was revealed to Andrew, one of the Apostles, that John should relate all things in his own name, aided by the revision of all. What wonder is it then that John so constantly brings forward Gospel- phrases, even in his Epistles, saying in his own person, " What we have seen with our eyes, and heard with our ears, and our hands have handled, these things have we written"? For so he professes that he was not only an eye-witness, but also a hearer, and moreover a historian of all the wonderful works of our Lord.' Though the beginning of this fragment has been de- stroyed, there can be no doubt that St. Matthew occu- pied the first place in his Canon. Further on he thus affirms distinctly the Church's belief in their inspira- tion : — ' Though various points are taught in each of the Gospels, it makes no difference to the faith of believers, since in all of them all things are declared by one overruling Spirit1 concerning the Nativity, the Passion, His conversation with His disciples, and His double advent, at first in humility, and afterwards in royal power as He will yet appear.' The writer of the manuscript then mentions the Acts, thirteen Epistles of 1 ' Uno ac principal! spu declarata.' St. Paul, and other books, some of which the Church judged afterwards to be Apocryphal. Irenasus, writing to his friend Florinus (about A.D. 177), and fondly recalling his intercourse in earlier days with Polycarp, alludes to the four Gospels under the well-understood title of Scriptures1. The passage is too interesting to be abridged : — ' I well recollect seeing thee in Asia Minor, at the house of Polycarp, when I was a boy, and thou wast in attendance on Hadrian's court, and seeking to commend thyself to Polycarp. Indeed, the events of my boyhood I remember better than what is more recent. For what is then put into our memory seems to grow with our growth, and become part of our very being. I could describe the exact spot where the blessed Polycarp used to sit and converse ; his goings-forth and his comings-in ; the whole manner of his life, and his personal appearance ; I remember his discourses to the people, and how he would narrate his intercourse with John and with the others who had beheld the Lord ; and how he repeated their words, and what he had heard from their lips about the Lord and about His miracles and teaching ; all this, received directly from those who were eye-wit- nesses of the Word of Life, used Polycarp to relate, agreeing throughout with the Scriptures'*. This same Irenasus, in his book 'Against Heresies' (iii. i), speaks of the Gospel which the Apostles first preached orally, and afterwards by the will of God handed down to us in a written form, ' the foundation and pillar of our faith.' And again in the I2th chap- 1 Compare Matt. xxvi. 54, Luke xxiv. 27, Acts xviii. 28, I Cor. xv. 3, 4, and 2 Peter iii. 16, where the term seems to be applied to St. Paul's Epistles. 2 Fragmenta Irencei (Stieren's edition, vol. i. p. 822). (External <3resiitwmi.es to tht'vc Quthtnticity 9 ter he says, ' Whence it appears that the all-creating Word, who sitteth between the cherubim, and holdeth together all things, hath given us the Gospel, fourfold in form, but held together by one Spirit.' In the second book his language is as strong as can well be about the inspiration of the Evangelists. After expressly defining ' Scripture ' to mean the writ- ings both of prophets and evangelists in the 27th chapter, he says in the 28th that where we find diffi- culties we must assume the fault to be in ourselves, ' because the Scriptures, being spoken by the Word and Spirit of God, are perfect.' Thus it appears that within a hundred years of the fall of Jerusalem, and almost within the lifetime of disciples of one of the Apostles, the Christian Church had accepted and stamped with the seal of inspiration these four Gospels, as the only authoritative records of our Lord's sojourn upon earth. From this time forward these four written Gospels came to be considered the most precious treasures of the Christian Church. Copies of them were multi- plied, and they were bound up with the other sacred books. By the good providence of God two of these manuscript copies, both written before the close of the fourth century, have been preserved down to our own time. One is in the Vatican library at Rome, the other (discovered in the monastery of Mount Sinai, ten years ago) is in the Imperial library at St. Petersburg. A third, of equal authority, written apparently early in the fifth century, is in the British Museum. Few, if any, books of ancient times have come down to us so authenticated by external testimonyas these four Gospel narratives of our blessed Lord's sojourn upon earth. CHAPTER II Internal (Character WE open these Gospels and read them, and what do we find ? Four brief narratives, none of them longer than a modern pamphlet, none of them a complete biography, but each one rather a collection of salient anecdotes and discourses, precisely such as an earnest preacher would select in order to convey to his hearers in the shortest compass a vivid portraiture of Him whom he wished to make known to them. They have much, necessarily, in common : all proceed upon one main outline of facts — the Baptism, the Ministry, the details of the Condemnation and Crucifixion, the Resurrection of our Lord. And yet how distinct are these four portraitures ! And above all, what a marked difference between the three earlier Gospels and the fourth ! Of this latter and most obvious difference let us first speak, — the difference between St. John's 'fiospel and the rest. The first three Evangelists'until they come to the final journey to Jerusalem, narrate only what occurred in Galilee. Whereas St. John's narrative to the extent of six-sevenths of its space has Jerusalem for its scene. Again, the three Galilean Gospels (as we may call them) have many miracles, many parables in com- mon ; told sometimes in almost identical words, as 3-ntnmal Character though they had derived their narrative from the often repeated oral teaching of the self-same eye-witnesses (and this may well be the explanation). St. John, on the contrary, relates no parables, and has but one miracle in common with the rest. Again, the Three relate chiefly our Lord's popular discourses concerning His Kingdom ; St. John for the most part His conversations with the Apostles or controversies with the Jews about His own Person and Mission. But the difference in style is still more striking. The Three write a plain narrative, making no com- ment, never speaking in their own person (except in St. Luke's brief preface) ; St John writes authorita- tively, theologically, enforcing his own explanation of the facts which he relates. These contrasts, which so widely separate the fourth Gospel from the rest, are at once explained by the fact which the early Church traditions unanimously affirm, that St. John wrote thirty years later than the rest, for a generation of men who had grown up in the Christian faith, and been familiar from childhood with that more popular cycle of Apostolic teaching which the three earlier Evangelists had embodied in their Gospels. We may accept or reject the anecdote preserved by Eusebius (Ecc. Hist. iii. 24), that the elders of Ephesus brought the three earlier Gospels under the special attention of the aged Apostle, and that he approved them, only noticing that some things were yet wanting, and wrote his own Gospel by way of supplement to them1; but one thing is certain, that, 1 Dr. Routh, in a note on Muratori's Fragment, speaks without any doubt of the authenticity of this anecdote of the primitive Church. — Rel. Sac. i. 407. 12 ^Lht Jfmtr if not these actual Gospels, yet at any rate their substance, as repeated over and over again by the Apostles and their ministers in preparing catechu- mens for baptism, was already familiar to the readers for whom St. John wrote. Hence (what otherwise would be inexplicable) his silence respecting such events as the Ascension and Transfiguration, and the institution of the Eucharist, of each of which, however (as has been well observed), he seems to assume a knowledge in his readers' minds1. Setting apart, therefore, this fourth Gospel as pos- sessing a character of its own altogether distinct from that of the rest, we proceed to consider the other three. And here too, in the midst of much general agreement, we find differences, — traces of three dis- tinct cycles of oral teaching, as though addressed to three distinct groups of Christian Churches. We read St. Matthew's Gospel from end to end continuously, so as to gather one general impression ; we mark the pedigree from Abraham, the father of God's chosen people ; the call from Egypt, as with Israel of old, so with the Hope of Israel ; the ever recurring appeal to the Old Testament ; the careful notice of every minute accomplishment of Messianic prophecy ; the stress laid on Christ's fulfilment of the Law2 ; the repeated announcement that a restoration of the theocratic kingdom was at hand ; the number of parables specially explaining the nature of this kingdom ; — we cannot mark all these characteristics 1 For St. John's allusions to the Ascension, see vi. 62 ; to the Transfiguration, i. 14 (comparing 2 Pet. i. 17, and notic- ing the phrase ' the only begotten of the Father,' in which there seems to be a reference to the Voice then heard) ; to the Eucharist, xiii. 2. a Matt. ii. 15; v. 17. r Internal Character without recognising the truth of the Church's constant tradition that this Gospel was specially addressed to the people of Israel. St. Matthew wrote to persuade God's people that in Jesus of Nazareth whom they had crucified, they might indeed confess the Prophet like unto Moses, the true Son of David, the restorer of His kingdom, the Messiah of all prophecy. We pass on to St. Mark, and we find that his Gospel is far from being (as St. Augustine so hastily asserted1) a mere abbreviation of St. Matthew's. There are incidents in our Lord's ministry that we know from St. Mark, and St. Mark only, — the inter- vention of His family (iii. 20, 21), the parable of the seed growing secretly (iv. 26-29), the healing of the deaf man of Decapolis (vii. 31-37), and of the blind man of Bethsaida (viii. 22-26), the name of Bartimeus (x. 46), and of Simon of Gyrene's sons (xv. 21), the young man's flight at Gethsemane (xiv. 51, 52). Besides this we have many vivid touches in the nar- rative, clearly due to an eye-witness — wanting in St. Matthew, — as in the account of the Gadarene demoniac, and of the Transfiguration. Four times he alone of the Evangelists notices our Lord's look (iii. 34, viii. 33, x. 21, 23). May we not in this greater vividness of de- tail recognise the aid of St. Peter, under whose direc- tion the later Christians believed the Gospel to have been written ? That it was written, if not at Rome, yet for Romans, is rendered probable by the constant use of Latin words, the careful explanation of Jewish terms and usages, and the rare reference to the Old Testament. It is a Gospel more of facts than of dis- courses, of action more than of reflection, suited to the Roman genius ; it is as though he wished above all 1 De Consetisti Evang. \. i. 14 ^fa Jfmtr things to portray Christ as more than man, instinct with divine creative energy, the Lord of Nature ; or, as he himself puts it, 'The Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.' Lastly, we turn to St. Luke, and notice how (in com- plete contrast to St. Mark) the gradual unfolding and growth of our Lord's humanity are traced through birth and infancy and boyhood ; how in the ministry every detail is brought forward that reveals the human sympathies of Christ, His sympathies not so much with the Israelite, as with man as man, — 'touched with a feeling of our infirmities ;' reclaiming the pro- digal, seeking the lost sheep, the good Samaritan and friend of all who need Him, — of the widow of Nain, of the dying thief; we notice how the very pedigree, unlike St. Matthew's, proclaims the tmiver- sality of Christ's mission, tracing back His descent not to Abraham only, but to Adam. Can any fail to recognise in this picture the Redeemer, the Mediator, the High Priest of the whole human race ? Can any doubt the truth of the uniform testimony of the Fathers that St. Luke wrote under the influence of the Apostle of the Gentiles, for those Greek Churches of which St. Paul was the founder ? How entirely this agrees with what we hear in the Acts and Epistles of their companionship, and with the striking coincidence of St. Luke's narrative of the last supper with St. Paul's account of its institution to the Corinthians ! It is important to realize to the full the distinctness of these four portraitures : — Christ the Messiah of Israel, Christ the mighty Lord of Nature, Christ the Friend and Priest of all mankind, Christ the true Light "TCluir internal Character and Life of the World. Fourfold our Gospel must ever be, fourfold as those streams of Eden, fourfold as those living creatures of the Apostle's Vision, fourfold as the divine character of Him whom these Evangel- ists reveal to us. If to know Him in all His fulness be indeed to us eternal life, we cannot afford to merge m one these separate aspects of our Lord. Instead of wondering at their differences, may we not rather bless and praise God for them ? No harmony, however perfect, can ever have a value at all approaching the value of these four originals. Why then attempt such a narrative as that which follows ? Two reasons may be given. The first is, that modern criticism will not let these Gospels rest. If they be not only diverse in character, but also contradictory, irreconcilable, clearly their cre- dibility is so far invalidated. How then can this be best tested ? If we had before us four separate ancient pictures, purporting to represent severally the north, east, south, and west aspects of some stately temple no longer standing : and they seemed at first sight so unlike each other, that it was questioned whether they could really be what they professed, — how might their credibility be best proved ? Obviously, if they were true and authentic, then a model might be con- structed having four such sides, which would at the same time be seen to form one consistent whole, — rough and incomparably inferior in beauty to the four ancient pictures, but still fulfilling its special purpose usefully. So with these four Gospels : — if we can really con- 1 6 ^ht Jortr struct a narrative of events such as might well form a basis of fact for each one of the four, then all doubt of their credibility on the score of their discrepancies would be removed. Nor need this be done perfectly or exhaustively. To any candid mind it will be enough if a sufficiently near approach be made to such a narrative as to sug- gest the probability that if we knew all it might easily be perfected. Not knowing all, any such reconstruction of the order of events must be to some extent conjectural. None of the three earlier Evangelists appear to follow a strict chronological order in their narratives of the Galilean ministry. Some group kindred parables to- gether, some group miracles. The healing of the Gadarene demoniac is placed by St. Mark after a whole cycle of events which in St. Matthew precede it. Much of St. Matthew's Sermon on the Mount is to be found in St. Luke in the chapters that follow the Transfiguration. The Supper at Bethany, which St. John tells us clearly took place before Palm Sun- day, is by the three other Evangelists told after the events of Tuesday in Holy week, apparently be- cause they connected it in their minds with Judas's treachery. To one who rightly understands the view with which they wrote, intending to give not a biography but a portraiture of our blessed Lord, all this will rather in- crease than lessen his belief that they wrote under the superintendence of the Holy Spirit. God's purpose was not that we should know all about Christ, but that we should know Him ; and for this far higher purpose, groups of anecdotes so arranged as best to illustrate His teaching and His character, were ir Internal Character 17 more likely to be effective than any mere chronicle from month to month. For this higher purpose we must ever have recourse to the inspired originals. For that other lower purpose such a compilation as the present may be useful. But there is another and a stronger motive. We can never truly appreciate the individuality of the originals until we have tried thus to co-ordinate them. Nothing helps to quicken the student's enjoyment of these four Gospels, each in its own special character, more effectu- ally than having once, at all events, gone through this process of collating them one with another in four parallel columns, as it were, and so been led to make out for himself all their latent harmonies. One Gospel will be found to throw light on another in a hundred ways that would never otherwise be suspected. And as in that beautiful invention of modern days, in which by combining into one focus two slightly varying aspects of a view, we gain a depth of perspective, and a solidity of form that seems to bring the very original before us ; so here, by stereoscoping into one view these four aspects of our blessed Lord, we may enable ourselves to see greater reality in that divine image which each one separately sets forth. PART II CHAPTER I girth aitb loath of (Dur IT was in the village of Nazareth, among the green hills of Galilee, that Mary was living, still in her own home ; for though she was betrothed to Joseph, and had pledged to him her faith, yet, according to the custom of Jewish maidens, she would remain a twelvemonth longer under her parents' roof. It was during this period that the angel Gabriel appeared to her, and told her that she should conceive and bring forth a son, and that her son should be the Messiah. A child without a father ! Mary trembled at the mystery : but the angel revealed all : — ' That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be the Son of God!' Brief as was the interview, the angel left her not without a token, whereby, when he was gone, she might ascertain assuredly that this was no illusion : — ' Thy cousin Elisabeth hath conceived, and shall also bear a son.' To her cousin Elisabeth at Hebron Mary hastens, a four days' journey, a hundred miles or more ; and it attb grrttth of (Dur JCotb 19 is even so. Nay, and the aged Elisabeth is inspired to greet her as the mother of her Lord. Mary's heart is full, filled with the prophetic inspiration of her race, and she pours forth the hymn that Christians have ever since loved to chant in their evening worship. Three months, or nearly up to the birth of Elisa- beth's child, she remained her guest ; and then re- turned to her Galilean home. Then, it must have been, on her return, that Joseph's mind was troubled with perplexing doubts. But to him too God revealed it all. And the days of betrothal being ended, he took Mary to his house. But can it be that the Son of David should be born away from David's city ! No : God's Providence is so ordering it that every prophecy shall be fulfilled ; and to Bethlehem both Joseph and Mary are summoned, — both being of the tribe and lineage of David, — for the enrolment which the Roman Emperor had ordered. There, sheltered for the night in one of the lime- stone caverns just outside the town, where the peasants stalled their cattle, — so Justin Martyr was told little more than a hundred years afterwards, doubtless by the natives of the place1, — the virgin mother gave birth to her promised child. She well remembered in after years, how, as she lay in her weakness, the gentle shep- herds came with eager haste, telling of the great light, and of the angel's message of great joy, and wishing to see the Child who was to be their Saviour. Comparing our two accounts we may infer that Joseph now made Bethlehem his home. There on the eighth day the Babe was circumcised, and named Jesus, as the angel had commanded. Forty days after the nativity, according to the law 1 Dial. c. 78. "Cite of Moses, the days for the mother's purification being accomplished, they take the holy Babe up to Jerusalem (six miles from Bethlehem), and there in the Temple ' present Him to the Lord.' Nor were worshippers wanting when the infant Messiah thus appeared for the first time in His Father's Temple. Holy Simeon was there, and taking the Child in his arms poured forth his prophetic psalm. The daughter of Phanuel was there also, the widowed prophetess, lifting up her voice in praise, and speaking of the child to all who like herself were looking for redemption in Jerusalem. Soon after this Presentation, probably, there arrived in Jerusalem those strange visitors from the East. Magi, or Wise men, they are called, — a priestly caste of the Medes and Persians, of whom we read much in the Book of Daniel ; Daniel was made master of the Magicians and Astrologers, — possibly from him they had derived their expectation of the Jewish Messiah. Through their knowledge of the stars God revealed to them that the fulness of time was come : the mystic weeks of their great master Daniel were fulfilled. No wonder all Jerusalem was excited ; no wonder the usurper Herod trembled for his throne. The Sanhe- drim was summoned ; the sacred books consulted ; at Bethlehem the Holy Child, if really born, is to be found. Thither the Chaldaean embassy repair with their gifts of homage. Thither the incensed tyrant sends his murderous agents to destroy the Child. Surely (the king thought) if all born within two years are slain, this so-called Messiah cannot escape. But already — warned by God's angel in a dream — the faith- ful Joseph, under cover of the night, was far upon the road to Egypt with the young Child and His mother. This must have been in February, just when the girth rmb loath of (Dor dying tyrant was seeking the baths of Jericho, there to spend the last six weeks of his miserable life. In the first week of April the angel reappeared, according to his promise, to tell Joseph of Herod's death ; and they retraced their steps towards Bethlehem, their adopted home. But when Joseph ' heard that Arche- laus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to return thither : and1 being warned of God in a dream, turned aside into Galilee,' and once more made Nazareth his abode. And here a veil falls over that sacred home. For well-nigh thirty years — with one brief exception — the life of Him who was 'the desire of all nations' is hidden from us. We only know that behind that veil ' the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom ; and the grace of God was upon Him.' Once, and once only, that veil is lifted, and we are permitted to behold Him, a Boy of twelve years, accompanying His mother and Joseph in their annual journey to Jerusalem at the Paschal season. Eight days the feast lasted ; ' and when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the Child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and His mother knew not of it.' The caravan of pilgrims was a large one, and they had kinsfolk in it ; might He not well be with them ? But no ; their search is in vain. So Joseph and Mary, 'sorrowing,' retrace their steps. Two whole days are spent in the crowded city seek- ing Him. On the third they find Him in one of the schools or lecture-rooms, apparently, that opened into the Temple cloister, where the Jewish professors held their disputations and taught their classes. And 1 The word ' notwithstanding ' in our English Version is not in the original, and spoils the sense. CS.asp.cl there Mary finds her Son, ' sitting among the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.' It would seem as though she paused, afraid to interrupt — paused long enough to note the admiration with which these Rabbis were regarding her Son. But when all is over, and they are alone with Him, Mary speaks. We must observe this — it is Mary alone who claims authority over Him — the mystery of His birth seems tacitly acknowledged in the prominence con- ceded to Mary ; and yet, how naturally (such being, doubtless, the custom of her household) she speaks of Joseph as ' Thy father,' — ' Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us ? behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing.' So Mary, most naturally ; but mark the dawning consciousness of the higher Sonship in the answer, ' How is it that ye sought Me ? wist ye not that I must be in the precincts of My Father ?' — for such seems to be the right translation, in the courts or precincts of My Father's house. But let that be : observe only how mysteriously, and yet how naturally also, how instinctively in the depth of His own divine consciousness, Jesus speaks of Himself, at twelve years old, as the Son of God ! As the Son of God, and yet in all things willing 'to learn obedience'1; for ' He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them.' And here once more the curtain falls ; and for eighteen long years the life of the youthful Messiah is veiled from view. It is not yet time for ' the arm of the Lord' to be revealed. He must 'grow up as a tender plant,' secluded from our curious eye : — enough for us to know that He was 'increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.' i Heb. v. 8. CHAPTER II fiaptism, temptation, anb ptl of the Lord ' had come to John in the wilderness ; when they found the Baptist clothed in the hair-cloth dress of the ancient prophets, — a man of the holiest, most ascetic life, content with such food as the desert afforded, — they made sure that it, was He, the Messiah whom they were expecting. ' There went out unto him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region about Jordan.' A deputation from the Sanhedrim waited on him, to know if it were so. But John denied that he was the Messiah ; he was not the Messiah, but he was sent by God to announce His near approach. Whenever He, the greater One, should appear, John would be divinely enabled to recognise Him. This God had promised, — had promised him a sign from heaven, whereby he should surely know the true Mes- siah, and so be able to proclaim Him. To the Baptist then Jesus came, undistinguished in the crowd. And yet as He approached John seems to have had a clear presentiment that it was He. Awe-struck and hesitating he baptized Him ; anxiously looking for the promised sign. And the sign was given. As Jesus rose up out of the river, ' Lo, the heavens were opened unto him ' (to John, but not to others, it would seem), ' and he saw the Spirit of God descend- ing like a dove and lighting upon Him : and, lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' But it was not God's will that the Messiah should be at once proclaimed. The Spirit had withdrawn Jesus into the wilderness. Forty days He there spent in solitary communion with His Father, and in con- flict with that Evil One, whose power over mankind He had come to break. Three times the Tempter assailed Him. Three times Christ repelled him, and gear's ^tinistrj 25 each time by that ' sword of the Spirit which is the word of God : ' — '// is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but 'by every word of God.' Thus Christ met the temptation of bodily .appetite, of the flesh. No food, no care of ours, could sustain our bodily life a single day unless God so willed it : let us therefore do His will, and leave all else to Him. Again, ' // is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.' Thus He met the temptation to grasp at once the .Messiah's dominion — the temptation of the world, as we may call it ; meaning that mere success is not a right aim or motive, but rather God's service. And lastly, ' // is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.' For the devil had bidden Him pre- sume on God's providential care, fanatically. And between faith and fanaticism there is the widest dif- ference : to trust that God will protect us while we are going His way, is faith ; to expect Him to protect us equally when going our own way, is fanaticism, called in Scripture a tempting of God. Unlike the temptations of the flesh and of the world, this last is a spiritual temptation, pride, a temptation of the devil peculiarly, — one that he reserves as his last snare for the saints of God. Thus was the holy Jesus ' in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' Thrice vanquished, ' the devil leaveth Him, and behold angels came and ministered to Him.' Returning in the power of the Spirit to the banks of Jordan, where John was still baptizing, the Messiah was at once recognised by the Baptist ; ' there standeth One among you whom ye know not ! ' And again the 26 'i&ht <§0sp£l next day, standing with two of his disciples, and look- ing upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, ' Behold the Lamb of God ! ' And the two, Andrew and the other one — unnamed, but clearly 'the disciple whom Jesus loved' — followed Jesus, and abode with Him that day. They both seek Simon, and his brother Andrew is the first to find him, with the news, ' We have found the Messiah ! ' On the morrow the Lord himself bids Philip of Bethsaida join Him ; and Philip findeth his friend Nathanael of Cana, — Bartholomew his other name, — all probably disciples of the Baptist. Jesus and His five companions are invited — through Nathanael the invitation may have come — to a mar- riage feast at Cana. Our Lord's mother was already at the bridegroom's house ; and may have been re- lated to him, for we shall find her speaking as with authority to the servants. Joseph is no longer men- tioned, and had probably long since been dead. Noticing that the arrival of the six new guests was causing some inconvenience, she turned to her Son, and called His attention to the lack of wine. Pos- sibly it was the custom then, as now, in the East, for guests to bring their contributions to a feast ; and Jesus had brought none. There was something in ' our Lord's reply which led Mary to expect that He intended by and bye to act on her suggestion, per- haps to send for wine1, but not immediately. She therefore bade the servants do whatever He might tell them. Then Jesus turned to the six water-vessels — set probably for the customary washing of the six newly arrived guests after their journey — and bade the servants fill them with fresh water, and then draw and serve it to the chairman of the feast ; 1 Compare John xiii. 29. liar's Jlimstrs 27 and, behold, the water, as they served it, was changed into wine ! The same divine power, which, by a slow process of secretion in the vine, turns the rain-drops into the juices of the grape, had wrought that self-same change instantaneously.1 And thus did Jesus not only declare Himself the Lord of Nature, but also shadow forth, by way of emblem, the deep purpose for which He had come, — to change the natural life of man into a divine life, showing that 'the water that He would give should be a well of water springing up into everlasting life'.2 In St. John's words, ' He manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him.' They stayed not many days in Galilee. 'The Pass- over was at hand.' And at Capernaum they would find the caravan of pilgrims already gathering. And Jesus went up with the rest to Jerusalem. And now that other distinct prophecy respecting the Messiah must be fulfilled : — 'The Lord' must ' come suddenly to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant,' . . . 'and purify the sons of Levi.' Mal- achi's words may well have rushed into the minds of all, when He, whom the Baptist had so lately pro- claimed as the Messiah, ' whose fan was in His hand, and who would throughly purge His floor,' appeared in the Temple, and with that scourge of small cords drove out the buyers and sellers and money-changers who were desecrating His Father's house. And when they asked Him by what authority He did these things, a yet greater sign than this He promised them, — in words misunderstood until the event explained them, 1 See St. Augustine's admirable remarks on the ' Quoti- diana miracula Dei,' in his I26th Sermon. 2 John iv. 14. 28 — ' Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will build it up,' — meaning the all-sufficient sign of His own resurrection. Thus distinctly, even from the first, was the end before Him, the great purpose of suffering for which He had come into the world. Half convinced by His miracles at this festival, one of the Pharisees of high rank, Nicodemus by name, came to Jesus by night, afraid to confess Him openly, or join the baptized group on the banks of Jordan1, but desiring to hear with his own ears a specimen of His teaching. Darkly, and under a figure which at the time Nicodemus failed to understand, — the figure of the new birth, — Jesus spake to him of that action of the Holy Spirit on the heart, which, begun in Bap- tism, must be more and more realized in the after-life of the Christian. This was in April. The remainder of that summer and autumn Christ spent (St. John tells us) on the banks of Jordan, with those five disciples, baptizing His converts by their hands : — He ever increasing, John ever decreasing ; the crowds that had followed John now following Jesus ; and the Baptist rejoicing that it should be so. Very affecting is this deep humility of the Baptist. Since the day when Moses stood on the further side of that same Jordan, surveying the promised land which he was not to enter, ' Tendebatque manus ripae ulterioris amore'2, there is nothing in history more affecting. The least in the kingdom of Christ's bap- tized was to be greater than he. His work was done ; his end was drawing near. With the truest modesty, he combined, as all God's holiest servants have ever com- bined, the truest courage. In the power and spirit of 1 Luke vii. 30. 2 sEneid \'i. 314. yd my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle Me and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have !' Then He showed them His hands and His feet — those pierced hands and feet ; so merci- fully patient, so gently reassuring. Ay and more, while they yet believe not for joy, and wonder, yet more will He do for their conviction : the remainder of their evening meal, the broiled fish and honeycomb, being still on their table, He took it and did eat before them all. Then turning to them all, to the ten Apostles, to the two from Emmaus, to the holy women, to the rest, He blessed that infant Church, with a blessing far more solemn than any heretofore, even with a foretaste of that Holy Comforter Whom He had pro- mised, perhaps in that selfsame upper chamber, three days before, breathing upon them with the warm human breath of His incarnation, and saying, ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost' — that Holy Spirit by whose aid the assembled Church was to have the power of bind- ing and of loosing, of admitting and refusing member- ship in her divine communion. Thus four times at least on this day of Resurrection did our Lord manifest Himself bodily to His disciples, — to the Magdalene, to Simon Peter, to the two at Emmaus, to the rest in the upper chamber. One week longer the Apostles tarried at Jerusalem, the feast of the Passover being not yet over, and on the Sunday following we hear of them as being again assembled in their upper chamber, with closed doors for fear of the Sanhedrim ; and this time Thomas is with them : on that first day he had been absent. Again Christ appears to them supernaturally, saying, ' Peace be unto you !' and vouchsafes to the doubting one, to Thomas, the same evidence of hand and side 105 whereby the others had been convinced. ' Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side : and be not faithless, but believing.' ' Wounded for our trans- gression,' — those wounds still open, albeit healed, — Thomas looks ' on Him whom they had pierced,' and weak in faith, yet faithful in his weakness, pours forth his adoration, ' My Lord and my God.' Nor does the everlasting Son of God refuse his worship ; but accepts it rather as the prelude of an ever-widening hymn of praise, — ' Thomas, because thou hast seen thou hast believed : blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.' Even as He had prayed before His passion : ' Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on Me through their word.' Such was our Lord's fifth appearance. How long after this we know not certainly, but pro- bably at once (the Passover being now completely over), the Apostles, by our Lord's direction, returned to the neighbourhood of Capernaum, where most of them had homes. Seven of them, at Simon Peter's sugges- tion, betook themselves to their old means of support as fishermen. In this we are reminded that He, to Whom the holy women had ministered so abundantly of their substance, was now no longer sharing the necessities of their daily life. Without Him they could not claim that ministration. I n the twilight of the early dawn, after a night of fruitless toil, they see some one standing on the beach, a hundred yards off, call- ing to them. He asks them, as a passing stranger might, what success they had had in their fishing, and bids them cast the net on the right side of the boat ; and forthwith they enclose a great multitude of 106 <$;ite (feozptl fishes. Ah, how vividly is that day brought to the mind of one of them, that day when he was first called to be a fisher of men ! St. John was the first to recog- nise the Lord, and to his friend he exclaims, ' It is the Lord !' St. Peter, ever foremost, swims to shore, the rest follow with the net. On the beach they find a charcoal fire with bread and meat — whence they knew not ; in the greater mystery of His presence the lesser mystery was lost. Nor durst they question, ' knowing it was the Lord.' Solemnly as before He breaks the bread, and gives it them. Then, turning to St. Peter, yet humbled by his fall, He commissions him anew to feed His sheep, and foretells his martyrdom before the great downfall of the nation, — that first coming of the Son of Man to judgment, which St. John should live to see. This was Christ's sixth appearance. A seventh was on the mountain of Galilee, where St. Matthew tells us He had appointed them to meet Him : the greatest, in one sense, of all the appearances, for here probably were gathered together those five hundred disciples whom St. Paul mentions as permitted also to be eye- witnesses of the Resurrection. And here, too, Christ proclaimed His universal kingdom : 'All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth : Go ye, therefore, and Christianize all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' — Reader ! dost thou recognise the full significance of this Divine formula, now for the first time heard on earth ? To realize the awe with which those Apostles must have heard it, bethink thee of the absolute impossibility of conceiving any other name this world has ever named being placed in the second place of that mystic Trinity ! Then thou wilt realize the claim now heard by the 107 Apostles from the lips of Him with Whom they had so often broken bread I One more, the last, of these appearances remains : for that to St. James, the Lord's brother, maybe passed over ; the bare fact and nothing more is recorded by St. Paul. But to the eleven Apostles one further sign is to be vouchsafed. To three only had the first Transfigu- ration been granted. All the Apostles are to behold this second and yet greater Transfiguration. The ap- proaching feast of Pentecost, it may be, or our Lord's command, had drawn them once more to the Holy City. There the Lord meets them, ten days before the feast, and conducts them, as of old, across the Kedron, and up the sloping sides of Olivet, even towards that well-loved home at Bethany. As they go Christ sums up all His teaching, pointing onwards to the ever-widening spread of His gospel, silencing their curiosity about the times and seasons, repeating His promise of the blessed Comforter, bidding them abide in Jerusalem until that Comforter should come. And then, as He raised His hands in act to bless them, He was parted from them, and slowly rose from earth towards heaven, disappearing into the well-known cloud of glory, the symbol of Jehovah's presence. And as they gazed and gazed, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, ' Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven !' Till then He is behind the veil ! PART III on tfje @ospel ^arrattfce CHAPTER I ©it the ^arratibc of the girth anb Infantg WHAT is the chief lesson of this curiously de- tailed narrative of the Birth and Infancy of Christ ? Suppose we had it not ; suppose Christmas with all its lovely memories was cut out from our Christian year ; suppose all four Gospels had commenced as St. Mark's commences, with Christ's baptism in Jordan at thirty years of age, and all before was blank : — no angel's salutation, no mystery of birth, no pastoral symphony, no star-led wizards, no inspired canticles, no glimpse of that daily growth in wisdom as in stature ; but all blank, until the Baptist cried aloud and said, ' There is One among you whom ye know not ! ' — what then would have been our creed ? what would have been the creed, I do not say of the sceptic or rationalist, but of the devout Christian, of the Christian Church ? Clearly, and, as it seems to me, inevitably this : that the time for the Messiah's advent being fully come, God looked down from heaven upon the (Dn tlve ^ztrratibE of the Infancti 109 children of men, and singled out one, an Israelite in- deed, in whom there was no guile, and said, ' This shall be My Son, in whom I will be pleased that the fulness of My Spirit shall dwell :' — and that this child of man, thus perfected, thus developed by inspiration and by the anointing in Jordan into a Son of God, was en- abled by Divine power to realize this ideal during some two or three years, was then crucified, raised again to life, and so disappeared. Such almost inevitably would have been our creed, and such verses as John xvii. 5, which speaks of the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, or Col. i. 16 and Heb. i. 2, where He is spoken of as the Creator of the world, would be simply an inexplicable enigma. In saying this I am not merely drawing on my own imagination. As early as the second century this heresy took root in the Christian Church. Accus- tomed from childhood to the fables of heathen mytho- logy, men began to ask themselves whether it might not be that God, or some emanation from God, had entered into the man Jesus at his baptism, and so en- abled him to do all those marvellous works. The notion gained ground rapidly, and took shape in the Gospel of Marcion. Marcion was an ardent admirer of Christ's teaching, a man of the most exemplary, even ascetic life. But in the creed of the Church he found difficulties, and to explain them away he framed his Gospel. And what is this Gospel of Marcion ? A mere mutilation of St. Luke's. And what portion specially of St. Luke did Marcion find it necessary to strike out ? These first two chapters1. 1 Marcion's Gospel begins with the statement that in the on the (gospel Yes, he who would attempt to rationalize the Gospel of Christ, — he who would persuade us that Jesus Christ was after all only an ideal man, into whom the divine element of Humanity entered so largely, and was so perfectly developed, that he became, as it were, the personification of all that is purest and noblest in our race, — he who would thus explain away the divinity of our Redeemer (our Redeemer no longer) by any such theory of human development, must begin at the beginning, must on the very threshold of the Gospel cut away and get rid of that simple holy tale of Bethlehem. The manhood of Christ, and His miracles, all that his philosophy is able (as he thinks) to grapple with — for who shall limit the spiritual power of a perfected humanity ? — all that he can deal with and idealize. But this mysterious birth, these clear attestations that the eternal Son of God was incarnate in that infant child of Mary, these exact fulfilments of ancient prophecy, these angel witnesses, this dawning consciousness of His divine origin, — if all this be really historical, then the sceptic's theory is destroyed, and his philosophy refuted. He who feared not to assail the Lord Christ is confounded before the holy child Jesus. Out of the mouth of the babe and suckling is ordained the strength that shall still the enemy and the avenger ! If any modern philosophy, — compelled to accept the rise of Christianity as a fact in the world's history 1800 years ago, but wishing to get rid of its super- natural origin, — ever whisper into our ears that the Christ whom we worship is the ideal man, whom the fifteenth year of Tiberius, the Christ of God (spiritus salu- taris) deigned to enter into Jesus in Capernaum. — Tertull. adv. Marc, i. 19 and iv. 7. pds respecting at O URELY it is no small proof that one and the O same Holy Spirit inspired and overruled these four Evangelists, that, writing as they did for very different readers, — one for the Jewish Church, an- other for that of Rome, a third for the Churches of Greece, a fourth for those of Asia Minor, — they should thus all, with one accord, pass over in complete silence more than nine-tenths of our Lord's earthly life. Doubtless the faithful memory of her who kept and pondered all things in her heart, could have supplied to St. Luke, not only that one precious anecdote of the boyhood, but also numberless other anecdotes of the youth and early manhood of the deepest interest. How we long for them ! What would we not give to know more of that home at Nazareth, where thirty long years of that sinless life were spent ! But no ! it is buried in silence. And why ? The silence of Holy Scripture is often as instructive as its revela- tions, — let us humbly, therefore, learn the lesson of this mysterious silence. There were inmates of that Galilean home to whom was vouchsafed, what is denied to us, the privilege of watching the growth of Jesus all through those silent years. And to them it once occurred,